Things 3.4 Update Introduces URL Linking Support, App Handover and Automation Features

Popular to-do app Things reached version 3.4 today and gained a trio of additional features made possible by the introduction of all-new Things URL links. Basically, the app now supports a special kind of link that starts with “things:” and enables users to send a variety of commands to the app.

For example, it’s now possible to link to your Today list, as well as the contents of your Upcoming and Logbook lists, from anywhere, such as in another app or within Things itself. In addition, links can be tied to specific to-dos within lists.

On Mac, links can be generated within Things by right-clicking on any to-do or list in the sidebar and selecting Share -> Copy Link. On iOS, the same option can be found in the Share menu, accessed via the chevron button in the upper right corner of a list. Some examples of the new links users can generate include:

• Show Today: things:///show?id=today
• Show Upcoming: things:///show?id=upcoming

• Show Logbook: things:///show?id=logbook

• Show your “Vacation in Rome” project: things:///show?query=Vacation%20in%20Rome (This works if the project has that name).

Apart from simple navigation, more advanced users can use Things URLs to execute powerful commands from outside of the app – to create to-dos, show tag filters, perform searches, and so on – while other apps will soon be able to use the URLs to send data to Things. For example, MindNode now lets users brainstorm on an empty canvas and then “hand it over” to Things as a project via a link.

The popular Drafts app is planning support for Things URL links in its next version, and with the publication of Things’ open source Swift library, more are likely to follow suit.

Things 3.4 can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $49.99 and from the iOS App Store. The iPad version is priced at $19.99 [Direct Link] while the iPhone version (which includes Apple watch support) is priced at $9.99. [Direct Link] A 15-day trial of Things for Mac is available on the Cultured Code website.

Tag: Cultured Code
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Facebook Messenger Streamlines Controls for Creating Group Video and Audio Chats

In December 2016, Facebook Messenger rolled out the ability for users to create group video chats with up to six members participating, and today the company has further streamlined the feature. Before today’s update, if users were already in a one-on-one video or audio call they had to hang up, start a new conversation, and choose every member to invite to the new group chat.

Now, while in a video chat or voice call, there will be a new “add person” icon so that users can simply scrub through a list of their Facebook Messenger friends, tap who to invite, and wait for them to join — all without leaving the original call.

With the ability to add more people seamlessly to your calls, you can continue your conversation in the moment, just like if you were together in real life. Never again worry about skipping a beat when sharing your BFF’s spontaneous karaoke performance on Messenger. Sharing moments like these is now a few quick taps away.

Otherwise, the feature remains the same with six total users able to video chat at once and various filters and effects still supported. After the call ends, Facebook Messenger also creates a group chat automatically in each user’s inbox, so that members can keep texting one another.

Facebook’s refinement to group video chats in Messenger comes as a similar feature has yet to debut in Apple’s FaceTime app. The long-requested, multi-person FaceTime call update is now being rumored for a potential launch within iOS 12 later this year, but Bloomberg has stated that it may not be ready for a debut in 2018.

If group video calls don’t make it into iOS 12, other improvements to FaceTime are rumored to be coming in the update this fall. Mainly, Apple is planning to integrate Animoji into FaceTime, allowing people to use the animated emoji characters when making a video call.

For Facebook, the company said that the new Messenger update will be available today on iOS and Android devices worldwide.

Tags: Facebook, Facebook Messenger
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US AG creates a new ‘Cybersecurity Task Force’

Days after the Mueller investigation revealed indictments against 13 Russian nationals for election tampering, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new Cybersecurity Task Force. Its marching orders are a bit vague — “canvass the many ways that the Department is combatting the global cyber threat” — but the AG’s first ask is for it to investigate efforts to interfere with US elections and infrastructure.

Members of the task force will come from various Justice Department entities and could extend to include reps from other federal agencies. Other tasks on its to-do list cover recent headline-grabbing incidents like mass thefts of personal information, violent ideologies spreading and recruiting over the internet or using tech to stymie law enforcement and massive computer attacks.

It’s difficult to guess what this group may achieve or identify as problems, but Sessions said in a statement that “The Internet has given us amazing new tools that help us work, communicate, and participate in our economy, but these tools can also be exploited by criminals, terrorists, and enemy governments…At the Department of Justice, we take these threats seriously. That is why today I am ordering the creation of a Cyber-Digital Task Force to advise me on the most effective ways that this Department can confront these threats and keep the American people safe.”

Source: DOJ

‘Angry Birds Champions’ lets players fling pheasants for real money

Angry Birds Champions is now available on iOS devices and through the developer’s website, allowing players to fling their feathered friends against precarious piles of pigs in a bid to win real money for the first time. The game is accessible through the WorldWinner iOS app or on WorldWinner.com, joining the studio’s other real-money tournament games like Wheel of Fortune, Solitaire, Scrabble and Trivial Pursuit.

“It’s really the original Angry Birds physics game — and obviously Rovio’s done a number of different derivatives using the iconography — but this is the core physics game of shooting birds and killing pigs,” WorldWinner boss Jeremy Shea told Engadget.

Angry Birds Champions is an officially licensed title, made in conjunction with Rovio. It uses an asynchronous multiplayer format: Someone pays to enter a tournament and completes one of the two modes, best-of-three or progression, and their highest or combined score is recorded. The game finds another similarly skilled player in the tournament and that person plays the same levels. Whoever ends up with the highest score wins the cash prize, and WorldWinner takes a little off the top of each match.

WorldWinner’s matchmaking system takes a number of factors into account, including how many games you’ve played, how well you’ve performed in specific tournaments, your win-loss ratio, and average or best scores.

These competitions are generally worth a few dollars each and cost less than a dollar to join. Shea wants to be clear that this isn’t gambling — WorldWinner has been building real-money tournament games for 18 years and it knows the laws inside and out. A handful of big-name games, including Star Wars: Battlefront II and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, have come under scrutiny in recent months over their use of loot boxes and other gambling-adjacent systems. WorldWinner argues games like Angry Birds Champions are skill-based competitions, eliminating the element of chance that would turn them into gambling.

Still, 10 states have regulations that make WorldWinner’s lawyers squirm, so cash tournaments aren’t available in those areas (Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Montana, South Carolina, South Dakota and Tennessee).

“We’re always in conversations with members of different states, and obviously there are players that want to play from certain states that we don’t allow and they’re disappointed when they find out,” Shea said. “But in terms of gambling laws and regulations on a state-by-state or country-by-country basis — we spend a considerable amount of money on attorneys and we’re absolutely in line with the regulations as they are today and will be tomorrow.”

Angry Birds Champions also isn’t trying to become the next big eSport — though Shea would forgive you for thinking so. Players do win real money by playing Angry Birds Champions, but it simply isn’t built to be a spectator sport.

“We clearly deliver competitions for money, from small two-player tournaments up to thousands of people participating,” Shea said. “We deliver the entry fee and the prize model that most of your eSports competition deliver. But… we’ve never been in the viewership model. So I think that’s the one area where we evolve our lingo from saying we are eSports to we are really on the edge of eSports.”

Angry Birds comes with a built-in player base, with 4 billion downloads (and at least one movie) since the franchise’s launch in 2009. Shea expects Angry Birds Champions to have tens of thousands of players, easily.

“That is one of reasons that we went with the partnership with Rovio, in particular at this stage of our development: In the past six months we have shifted our focus from being very committed to delivering a PC-based consumer experience where we’ve had our success for close to two decades, to trying to enter the mobile space,” Shea said. “Our expectation is that this week, we hit all of our launch targets and this will quickly scale to be one of our top-performing games, which would put it in the thousands of players playing in a given day.”

And that’s just on iOS — WorldWinner is working on an Android version of the game as well, though there’s no launch window just yet.

AI is making more realistic CG animal fur

Creating realistic animal fur has always been a vexing problem for 3D animators because of the complex way the fibers interact with light. Now, thanks to our ubiquitous friend artificial intelligence, University of California researchers have found a way to do it better. “Our model generates much more accurate simulations and is 10 times faster than the state of the art,” said lead author Ravi Ramamoorthi. The result could be that very soon, you’ll see more believable (and no doubt cuter) furry critters in movies, TV and video games.

A lot of fur rendering systems were designed for human hair, and that’s a problem. Fur fibers have a larger central section — aka, the medulla — that scatters light differently, giving a soft, yet glossy appearance. Current renderers don’t look at the medulla, but merely consider how light bounces from one fur fiber to the next. As a result, they have to do a lot of number-crunching and tend to be slow.

The UC researchers instead used a principal called subsurface scattering to see how light richocets around and through translucent fur medullas. To understand the principal, you can shine a smartphone’s flashlight through your finger in a dark room. “You will see a ring of light, because the light has entered through your finger, scattered inside and then gone back out,” the UC team explained.

Applying subsurface scattering to fur is a thorny mathematical problem, though, so the UC team turned to a neural network. After being trained on just a single scene, the AI was able to apply subsurface scattering to a variety of other scenes, including wolf, raccoon and hamster models.

The results are a clear improvement, and the technique works equally well for hair. The team is now shooting for real-time fur rendering, which could be extremely useful for game designers who want to introduce more realistic animals. Fur-covered Sonic or Pikachu, anyone?

Source: UC San Diego

‘Alto’s Odyssey’ Launches One Day Early on iOS and tvOS App Stores

Earlier in February, developer Snowman announced that “Alto’s Odyssey” would be launching on iOS and tvOS Thursday, February 22, but the game has appeared one day early on both App Stores and is available to download right now for $4.99 [Direct Link] (via TouchArcade). Alto’s Odyssey isn’t featured yet on the United States App Store, but a search for it on both iOS and tvOS should surface the correct game.

Originally set to debut in summer 2017, Alto’s Odyssey is the sequel to the original 2015 game “Alto’s Adventure” and keeps the endless runner gameplay that the original was known for while introducing new features, controls, and a new desert location. Both games feature a “one-touch trick system” that players use to control the main character to chain together combos and complete various goals.

If anyone has yet to play the original, Snowman said that Alto’s Odyssey is a standalone experience and doesn’t require knowledge of Alto’s Adventure. Other features of Alto’s Odyssey include:

– Explore Biomes. From the dunes, to the canyons, to the temples, explore a rich and diverse landscape, with each area boasting unique visuals and gameplay.
– Newfound heights. Discover secrets in the sky with hot-air balloons, moving grind rails, and wall riding.
– Meet Alto and friends. Unlock six unique characters, each with their own attributes and abilities.
– Zen Mode. Complete with its own serene soundtrack, this relaxing mode distills Odyssey down to its purest elements: no scores, no coins, and no power-ups. Just you and the endless desert.
– Photo Mode. From the pause screen, get behind the lens and take stunning photos of your trip through the desert. Pinch, swipe, pan and zoom to frame the ideal shot, and share them with friends and family.

Alto’s Odyssey is a universal app with iCloud support, so users can play the game on iPhone or iPad and have their progress synced across devices, even Apple TV. The game also supports a “purchase once, play forever” promise on its App Store description, and Snowman states that it has no ads or in-app purchases anywhere within the game. Those interested can purchase Alto’s Odyssey for $4.99 starting today [Direct Link].

Tag: Alto’s Odyssey
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iPad Refresh in March Likely as Apple Receives Certification for New Tablets in Eurasia

Apple has registered new tablets with the Eurasian Economic Commission this week, suggesting that an iPad refresh is likely on the horizon. The filings, uncovered by French website Consomac, are legally required for any devices with encryption sold in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia.

Two of the tablets have model numbers A1893 and A1954, which don’t correspond with any current iPad mini, iPad, or iPad Pro. There are also a handful of “sample” products listed that have model numbers starting with AA and CC, which is uncharacteristic, so it’s unclear what those listings may pertain to.

Recent rumors and logical guesswork suggest Apple could be planning an annual refresh of its lower-cost 9.7-inch iPad, introduced last March for $329 in the United States, while the iPad mini has also gone a few years without an update.

Eurasian Economic Commission listings via Consomac
A few months ago, supply chain informant DigiTimes claimed Apple is also planning to release an even cheaper 9.7-inch iPad for around $259 this year. The website also said Apple’s first new products of 2018 would be released in March, so next month is shaping up to see the arrival of at least one new budget iPad.

It’s unclear what changes the new 9.7-inch iPad would have, but given its price point, it will likely retain a classic design with top and bottom bezels and a home button with Touch ID, rather than Face ID. Any refresh is likely to be a relatively minor one, with a focus on performance improvements.

The current 9.7-inch iPad is powered by an Apple A9 chip, and features an 8-megapixel rear camera, 1.2-megapixel front camera, two speakers, Lightning connector, 3.5mm headphone jack, Touch ID, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.2. Unlike the iPad Pro, it lacks Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard support.

Given the 9.7-inch iPad is a niche product, a refresh could be announced via press release like last year. But with rumors swirling about a new iPhone SE, originally unveiled at a March 2016 event, perhaps Apple will have enough announcements on its docket to host a special event at Steve Jobs Theater.

Apple’s rumored iPad Pro with Face ID is more likely to be unveiled at WWDC 2018 in June, but the discontinued 9.7-inch iPad Pro debuted in March 2016, so there’s some precedence for an earlier introduction.

In the past, similar filings with the Eurasian Economic Commission have been submitted for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro and 12.9-inch iPad Pro, iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, Apple Watch Series 2, AirPods, and MacBook Pro with Touch Bar models, all within one to two weeks before each product was released.

All in all, the listings suggest Apple will introduce new products of some kind in March for the fourth consecutive year.

Related Roundup: iPad (2017)Tag: Eurasian Economic CommissionBuyer’s Guide: iPad (Don’t Buy)
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Ride your backpack with the Movpak, an e-board that also stows your stuff

Two years ago, the folks behind Movpak managed to raise over $250,000 to bring their electric skateboard and backpack combination to life. Now, the team is ready to ship a new-and-improved version of the electric skateboard that takes portability to a whole new level to eager backers around the world.

You see, once you’re finished riding the Movpak, you won’t need to pick it up and tuck it under your arm. Rather, you’ll be able to simply fold it up into a backpack and go about your merry way. So whether you want to consider it a backpack you can ride or a skateboard you can wear, it seems like the perfect tool for your urban commute.

The backpack-board hybrid is ready to ship, and available for pre-order on the crowdfunding site. Of course, we still urge you to exercise caution when it comes to backing crowdfunding projects, but it does seem as though the Movpak is ready to make good on its delivery pledges. The Movpak that will be shipping now boasts a larger bag capacity than promised in the original campaign — at 35 liters, you’ll basically be able to transport the whole contents of your office to and fro should you so choose. Be warned, however, the Movpak is pretty heavy already — after all, it contains an e-board — weighing in at 16 pounds. So despite the roominess of the bag, you’ll probably want to pack light. 

Riding the Movpak is as easy as pulling a dedicated handle. From there, the board easily slides out, and using a companion remote, you’ll be able to control your speed and braking as you cruise down streets. In order to recharge the Movpak, just plug the charger into any standard outlet for a couple hours. The deck of the eboard is constructed with a combination of wood, metal, and Kevlar compounds, which promises to make the board simultaneously strong and flexible.

The Movpak is capable of traversing six miles on a single charge, at a top speed of 15 miles per hour, but thanks to new swappable batteries, you can double the range for longer commutes. There’s also an iOS and Android companion app that can help you track your Movpak in case it’s stolen. Built-in Bluetooth speakers will let you listen to your favorite playlist from any streaming service. so you can keep yourself entertained on your ride.

Promising to be airport friendly, the Movpak should fit into most overhead compartments on commercial flights, and also satisfies battery size limit restrictions. Thanks to its pull-out handle, you can easily roll the Movpak through an airport (or any other environment). We should point out, however, that while the Movpak is suitable for light rains or humid terrains, you shouldn’t ride it in heavy storms. The backpack itself is water repellent, so the contents of your Movpak should be quite safe.

The Movpak will set you back $899 on Indiegogo, and will begin shipping immediately. Once the campaign ends, the Movpak will retail for $1,190.

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Blink to click? Nanotube-coated tissue paper sensor can track eyeball movement

Dennis R. Wise/University of Washington

Engineers at the University of Washington have successfully created a new type of wearable sensor out of tissue paper, similar to toilet tissue, that’s capable of detecting a person’s pulse, the blink of an eye, and other human movements. The Band Aid-sized sensors are light, flexible, inexpensive — and demonstrate just how far removed today’s smart sensors are from the expensive bulky sensors that were needed to do the same job just a few years back.

“When tissue paper coated with carbon nanotubes is stretched by a designed length, the cellulose fibers coated with nanotubes are fractured and reoriented to form crossbar junctions near a crack,” Jinyuan Zhang, a graduate student who worked on the project, told Digital Trends. “The junctions create highly sensitive resistive and capacitive sensors. The resistive sensors can be used to measure strain, force, and pressure. The capacitive sensors can be used to measure force, pressure, and non-contact displacement. The sensors can [also] be used to measure heart beats, finger movement, eyeball movement, and other human behavior.”

The sensors change their functionality based on where they are placed on the body. To trace eye movement, for example, they can be attached to a user’s glasses.

Zhang said that they could be used in various applications, ranging from healthcare to gaming. In the case of healthcare, for instance, the team’s sensors could help diagnose brain damage by tracking functions like walking. The wearable sensors could also be used as input devices linked to specific functions — such as an eye blink being used as a remote control. In gaming, meanwhile, the sensor could be used to creative more intuitive input controls. For example, it would be possible to arrange it so that different signals are produced depending on how hard a person squeezes a controller. This could then trigger different effects, such as how far the ball is kicked in a soccer game.

“The next step of the research is to discover the potential of a tissue paper sensor in physical, chemical, and biological sensing, to develop prototypes for a gait sensor or an eyeball monitoring sensor, and to find a niche market where this sensor can be launched,” Zhang said. “My research group is currently working with Comotion at University of Washington to find a commercialization opportunity.”

A paper describing the work was recently published in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies.

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Infrasound microphones could predict volcano eruptions before they strike

Sound recording equipment is getting better all the time. Researchers from Boise State University, Stanford University, and Chile’s University of Concepcion have just found a new, very specific application for low-frequency microphones, however, potentially helping to predict the eruption of certain volcanoes around the world.

Their technology involves monitoring inaudible low frequencies, called infrasound, which are produced by a type of active volcano such as the Villarrica volcano in southern Chile.

“Many volcanoes produce energetic infrasound — not ultrasound — which is low-frequency sound that travels long distances through the atmosphere and can be recorded with specialized microphophones,” Jeffrey Johnson, an associate professor of geophysics at Boise State, told Digital Trends. “Although humans can’t perceive infrasound, it can be incredibly energetic.”

In the leadup to Villarrica’s March 3, 2015 eruption, which caused the evacuation of around 4,000 people from their homes, Johnson notes that the volcano was kicking out as much as 100,000 watts of acoustic power 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This infrasound was produced by the lava lake at the bottom of the crater, but its sound tone and quality were influenced by the shape of the crater, which acted like a giant musical horn. As the lava lake began to rise within the crater, the shape of this horn changed and, as a result, the character of the sound it produced.

Tracking this infrasound in real-time, using microphones similar to the ones custom-built and calibrated by the team at Boise State’s infrasound laboratory could help serve as a valuable early warning tool for potentially deadly eruptions. This monitoring might be carried out using tools such as machine-learning algorithms. It could be added to the existing volcano forecasting models, which analyze readings from seismometers, satellite remote sensing, and gas sensors. Similar volcanoes to Villarrica are located in Hawaii, South Pacific, Italy, Africa, and Central America.

“Our goal is to promote improved eruption forecasting, but not for commercial ends,” Johnson said. “This type of science is not driven for monetary profit, but for the goal of seeing science applied to issue timely warnings and — hopefully — mitigate the human impacts of eruptions.”

A paper describing the work, titled “Forecasting the eruption of an open-vent volcano using resonant infrasound tones,” was recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

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